New Year, New Branding
Alex P.
Dec 20, 2023
5 min.
Our initial branding was established in 2019 and, at its heart, remained unchanged. In this blog post, we will share what has changed, what has remained the same, and our reasoning.
Since 2019, the blockchain industry has undergone considerable evolution. Similarly, Request Network’s technology has advanced, and our team has expanded, but our visual communication has remained essentially unchanged - until now.
Today, we are thrilled to unveil the branding identity upgrade of Request Network. This upgrade symbolizes our progress and future vision and reiterates our foundational values of inclusivity, transparency, integrity, and sovereignty.
Why a new visual identity
The rationale behind the branding upgrade is threefold:
1. Industry Growth
Since 2019, blockchain technology has undergone significant evolution. The development spans various areas, including broader market awareness, volume of on-chain payments, regulation, and B2B adoption, among others.
As of 2023, the landscape is markedly different from five years ago. This shift is also reflected in design trends.
After years of utilizing the same font, art direction, and color palette, it's time to revitalize our brand's visual expression.
2. Team Expansion
We’re now a team of five – a protocol lead, two core developers, and two marketers.
Despite our varied backgrounds, we share a common mission similar to Request Network. Consequently, a visual brand identity that reflects us is overdue.
3. More Options
As the industry matures, our target market has similarly evolved, leading us to refine our focus. We've expanded beyond invoicing to support a range of categories, including accounting, credit scoring, lending, insurance, and payments, to name only a few.
The new brand identity will enable us to customize our visual communication for upcoming campaigns without being restricted or limited in visual variety
What remains unchanged
Brand name
We value the strong brand we have built over the years, and changing our name wouldn't make sense. While we have always been known as Request Network, many have come to refer to us simply as “Request” for brevity in communication. We understand this; it streamlines interactions.
However, we are Request Network, a foundation at our core. For instance, Request Finance is a builder utilizing the Web3 financial infrastructure that Request Network powers. With an increasing number of players entering the market, it's vital for us to avoid confusion.
Therefore, we prefer to consistently refer to ourselves as “Request Network” in all communication forms, whether written materials, talks, videos, or one-on-one conversations.
Primary color
Initially, we chose green as our primary color and will continue to use it.
Green symbolizes freshness and nature. It not only reflects our industry's nascent and vibrant nature but also serves as a reminder for us to stay relevant, agile, and adaptable, much like nature itself.
We will also maintain green because our community strongly associates our brand with this color.
What has changed
Logo (partially)
The watermark 'R' in our logo will remain unchanged. The update involves adding the wordmark 'Request Network' for enhanced brand recognition.
In areas where it is visually appealing to do so, we will use the watermark instead of the full logo.
Font
Primary
We have selected Monserrat as our primary font due to its high readability, scalability, and extensive font family, which includes nine weights ranging from Thin to Black.
We plan to gradually incorporate it, primarily in headlines, titles, and sub-headlines.
Monserrat - a sans-serif typeface, was designed by Argentine graphic designer Julieta Ulanovsky. By choosing this font, we indirectly express our solidarity with Argentinians in their battle against inflation.
Secondary
'Rooftop' is our secondary font choice, drawing inspiration from early 20th-century American grotesque typefaces and embodying a modern, tech-forward vibe.
Its design is distinguished by unique characteristics in letters such as 'f', 't', 'r', 'g', and 'y', making it stand out and ensuring legibility and adaptability.
This perfectly aligns with our ethos in the constantly evolving landscape of web3 and decentralized finance.
We plan to use 'Rooftop' primarily for larger blocks of text and paragraphs.
Both typefaces, available in multiple weights, offer us the flexibility and creative freedom to utilize them in various scenarios. From web design to large banner prints and even on stickers and T-shirts for events, these fonts allow diverse applications that suit our branding needs.
Secondary colors
Much like the diversity of our chosen fonts, the secondary colors we've selected strike the perfect balance; they are designed to combat visual boredom, capture attention, and still resonate with our brand's personality.
Art Direction
Our initial design concept centered around 'the arrow', symbolizing sending a payment request, receiving the payment, and repeating - a continuous back-and-forth. We will still retain it in parts of our design but with a fresh twist, incorporating a gradient color scheme.
As we now support builders across various financial use cases, some previously technically unfeasible, our art direction has also evolved to include new designs.
Spherical Dotted Mesh
The fluid dots in our design represent a 'network' (symbolized by the dots) and 'inclusivity' (indicated by their connected or mesh-like arrangement).
'Fluidity' and 'roundness' signify our commitment to providing compliant, cutting-edge tech infrastructure solutions that are adaptable and continuously evolving.
Gradient Halftones
The gradients we use are a play of two colors, two actions, two parties.
It supports our brand from various angles:
Payment request - Settlement
Current tech offering - Upcoming roadmap
Credit score - Lending product
Receivables - Automated tax-reporting
Interpolated Wavy Lines
Essentially, this pattern is a design of fluid parallel lines that never touch each other but display a cohesive output together.
We chose this type of pattern because it mirrors the characteristics of our community of builders
Independent parties - Separated curves
Building in the same industry - Structured pattern
Together creating better tech - Cohesive outcome
The concept of 'fluidity' (flexibility) appeals to us because the path forward for Request Network and our builders is paved with continuous optimizations, adjustments, re-planning, and perseverance.
Forward into the future
Our branding upgrade showcases our commitment to being a leading Web3 financial infrastructure enabler. The visual upgrade will be evident in all aspects of Request Network's communications, from social media and blog visuals to newsletters, web design, and talks. Our website will continue to receive enhancements in the coming months.
We welcome feedback from our community on X or Discord.
We thank the community members, investors, and supporters who responded to our outreach and the branding questions we sent out.
Together, we have shaped the new Request Network brand identity.
